Green Cars

Rivalries aren’t a foreign concept in the business world. Coke hates Pepsi, Microsoft can’t stand Apple, and Boeing certainly isn’t Airbus’ BFF. It seems that these spats have leaked into the growing world of EV’s and hybrid cars. After their EV was equated to a leaf blower in a Chevy spot, Nissan has exacted their revenge on the gas powered Volt in a new ad.

Most drivers have a friendly neighborhood gas station, but what about electric car charging points? Chances are you’re more likely to find a one in your neighbor’s garage next to their shiny new Volt or Leaf than on Main Street. The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, aims to make them as commonplace as gas stations with a plan to put an EV charging station within one mile of every resident.

Over the past few decades we’ve become obsessed with wireless gadgets. From cordless phones to wireless charging stations for smartphones, we are living a wire-free lifestyle. However, with the introduction of electric cars like Nissan’s Leaf we are tied to a charging cord again. Volvo is looking to create a convenient charging system for EVs that will charge a car without the use of wires or plugs in your garage.

The problem with the current crop of EVs is their charging method. Drivers basically perform an operation everyday that’s similar to pumping gas. They need to get out of their car, locate the cable on their charging unit, find the port on their car, and attach the car to the power source. For those that forget to plug-in, they won’t have a ride to work in the morning.

As we roll into summer there’s always one thing that gardeners and allergy suffers dread, the lowly dandelion. While it may wreak havoc on your lawn and sinuses, the pesky weed may end up in your next set of wheels. Ford and The Ohio State University (OSU) are looking to transform dandelions from a pollen-filled menace into a source for car parts.

Due to its homegrown car culture, California has been working hard to get drivers to adopt green cars like Toyota’s Prius. Some cities offered free parking to Prius owners and the state even bent the rules when it came to the carpool or “High Occupancy Vehicle” (HOV) lane. With the arrival of the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt, Prius owners are being pushed out of the carpool lane to make room for the new kids on the block.

The battery packs that power electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt are extremely heavy. This feature improves the safety rating of the EV’s, but also leads to more road wear. Since road maintenance is financed mainly with fuel taxes on gasoline and diesel, drivers of the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt get a free ride. Taxing drivers per mile rather than per gallon would be a fairer way to fund road maintenance.

Road maintenance is currently funded by the Highway Trust Fund, which is financed by federal fuel taxes set at 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel in 1993. Since 2008, however, highway spending surpassed the revenues from the trust fund. To make up the shortfall, the Treasury has had to provide $30 billon to the trust fund.

When it comes to hybrid and electric cars, cool technology features can be a real selling point in the age of gadget obsession. Mini replaced a standard key with a smartphone on their concept scooter and Chevy developed an app that will tell Volt owners the cheapest time to charge up their car. Toyota is looking to get in on the game by partnering with Microsoft to add similar technologies in their hybrid and electric cars.

Since it was reintroduced back in 2002 Top gear has been a cash cow for the BBC. The show that features three witty British guys playing around with high powered cars is seen in more than 100 countries and spawned a line of merchandise that includes t-shirts and CDs. While the lads may get a chuckle out of testing sleek rides, one company isn’t laughing along with them. Tesla Motors claims that the producers behind the show weren’t playing fair when they tested their all-electric Roadster and are suing the BBC for libel and malicious falsehood.

Researchers from Brazil announced successful development of a new form of plant fiber-based plastic as stiff as Kevlar and supposedly stronger, lighter yet more eco-friendly than plastics currently in use. Can we expect fiber-based dashboards in future Nissan leafs, GM Volts etc.? Are these fiber-based plastics truly eco-friendly?

When finely grinding up cellulose tiny fiber particles are produced. Mixing these tiny particles, which are so small that 50,000 of them could fit into the width of a human hair, into the plastics, results in stronger and more durable plastics. Alcides Leao, the team leader responsible for the development of fiber-based plastics sais, that these nano-cellulose fibers can be almost as strong as Kevlar, and in addition, they are a renewable source.

Your drive to work is a pleasure, uninterrupted by traffic or red lights, right? If not, perhaps you should work for the EPA, the Environment Protection Agency. These are the people who design the test cycles in order to generate the fuel efficiency ratings for each vehicle sold in the United States. Someone there felt that it was good idea to include just a single stop when measuring a car's fuel efficiency in the city. I can only assume their drive to work is a breeze. The result is that hybrid electric cars like the Toyota Prius and the Chevy Volt are not given any credit for fuel saved when their engines are turned off in traffic.

About Tainted Green

Why Tainted Green? Literally, green is only a color. But in typical human fashion we've pumped a cacophony of additional meanings and symbolism into the word. Green has become a marketing tool used by companies with impunity to wrap their products in a balmy haze of "ethical" and "conscientious" approval.

That's where Tainted Green steps in. We are seekers of truth, and we support the fundamental drivers behind the green movement. Ideas like permaculture, renewable energy, and recycling make sense, but companies that express support for green without a wholesome process behind it have tainted the meaning of green. And so, our focus is to create green content that pushes the ideology forward while pointing out which parts look like this year's marketing baggage. Welcome to Tainted Green, where we focus on unearthing the truth about green.